Thursday, August 20, 2009

Influences

Who influences your writing the most? Or maybe it's a what?

Recently I was asked this question. I can't say for certain that I've been influence per say by other authors. If I could, I'd want to have stories as memorable as Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series (seriously it's a great Egyptology series about a family and... I LOVED it. Those books are more worn than any other from use), characters as in depth as those by Nora Roberts (I swear her characters are real people. They are THAT 3D) or Nalini Singh (such a wide depth of characters and she can write an awesome series) and a written world of... heck any of the above.

I've always been influenced I suppose by authors one way or another but for the majority, I grab info from everywhere-- my anthroplogy and biology courses, the supernatural (psychic abilities in particular)... CSI (not the show but the real forensics).

I love sciences and humanities. And if I could write historicals I might have written one back in the ancient times of Rome or Greece or Crete...or Egypt. The way of the future is opening up new possibilities every day, especially when it comes to military devices. Even video games can give me ideas to use (as an aside: this is how I got my ideas for FV early on... through Final Fantasy and Medal of Honor). I can't say however that my environment does per say. My stories don't really take place right in town... but in isolation and that's the way I like it because then I don't need to get bogged down in the details of landmarks and readers recognizing locations.

It's hard to pinpoint any one inflence because there are so many. No matter what, I doubt I'll ever really be writing for one fad or another simply because everything is usually so convoluted anyway and it will have elements that don't fit in one particular category.

What about you? What influences you the most? Do you write for what is selling now or do you go off and do your own thing?

2 comments:

  1. LOL - I tend to go off and do my own thing, which is why I always seem to be ten steps behind everyone else.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like to do my own thing. Writing as it is can be, to quote a certain Miley Cyrus/Hanah Montana, "(a) climb" - why not write what makes you happy? Following trends, especially when they change so quickly compared to how fast most people write/publish, can be more work then just writing the story that's actually poking at you.

    I've been playing around with a time travel series where characters do end up in ancient Rome and Egypt (amongst other places) for about 4 years now. I haven't written it because 1)I need to do extensive research and 2)I don't think my writing skills are at the level that'll do the story justice. I'll keep writing and hopefully improving, so when I feel I'm ready, I can go at it. If it doesn't sell for whatever reason, well, I'll just bind it and set it on my bookshelf.

    ReplyDelete